Feature Channels: Agriculture

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To protect consumers from foodborne illness, produce farmers should wait 24 hours after a rain or irrigating their fields to harvest crops,

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Recent work showed that long-term differences in soil use and management influence not only the sizes and numbers of soil aggregates, but also what the pores inside them will look like.

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Soil animals degrade organic matter, maintain soil structure

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Other topics include; do x-rays really cause cancer? And more.

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The lobsters create "behavioral immunity" that prevents them from contracting a deadly disease, a key finding for the $50 million a year Florida business, according to a new study co-authored by a UF/IFAS scientist.

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Plants need water. People need water. Unfortunately, there’s only so much clean water to go around — and so the effort begins to find a solution. One strategy is to use treated wastewater, containing salt leftover from the cleaning process, to water large areas of turf grass. Researchers have found ways to breed salt-tolerant turf that can withstand this irrigation.

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New Mexico is following the nation in the demand for locally-grown fruits and vegetables. New Mexico State University is working with small-acreage farmers around the state to meet the demand. At a recent vegetable-farming workshop in Albuquerque, 90 percent of attendees farmed 10 acres or less and 75 percent had farmed for less than 10 years.

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University of Florida scientists have discovered how much water castor needs in order to grow in North Florida, a key finding in their efforts to determine the feasibility of producing castor in Florida for the first time since 1972.

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University of Florida IFAS researchers are building new homes for the feral bees to save the birds.

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Topics include: treating advanced skin cancer, big data and bioenergy, cancer research, 10 reasons to eat quinoa, sleep issues in the nursing field, advances in cancer surgery, genes for sleep, brain receptor for cocaine addiction, and nano imaging on insect adaptations.

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This article is the second installment in a three-part series on the relationships between pesticides and row crops, farmers and beekeepers, and factors influencing honeybee health. This story focuses on the Mississippi Honey Bee Stewardship Program.

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This article is the final installment in a three-part series on the relationships between pesticides and row crops, farmers and beekeepers, and factors influencing honeybee health. This story features MSU beekeeping specialist Dr. Jeff Harris and a discussion of Varroa mites and Varroa Sensitive Hygienic bees.

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This article is the first installment in a three-part series with Mississippi State scientists on the relationships between pesticides and row crops, farmers and beekeepers, and factors influencing honeybee health.

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Using switchgrass to produce biofuel is one way to decrease the United States’ dependence on oil, but growing it and making it profitable can be complicated. It lacks qualities, such as high biomass yield, needed to maximize biofuel production. To combat this issue, and breed switchgrass that has the optimal combination of these traits, the researchers tried evaluating plants using the Smith-Hazel Selection Index. This index allowed the researchers to estimate and combine information on multiple traits. It also looked at the economic value of each trait, which further maximizes the rating.

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A major international study finds that surprisingly few bee species are responsible for pollinating the planet's crops: only two percent of wild bee species pollinate 80 percent of bee-pollinated crops worldwide.

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The International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC) and the Wheat Initiative announced today that reference sequencing of wheat chromosome 4B would commence shortly in France. This complements the reference sequencing projects already underway on 11 other wheat chromosomes and adds momentum to the goal of achieving a high quality reference sequence of the bread wheat genome to speed up gene discovery and breeding of new wheat varieties.

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University of Delaware researchers have discovered a soil microbe that mobilizes an “iron shield” to block the uptake of toxic arsenic in rice. The UD finding gives hope that a natural, low-cost solution — a probiotic for rice plants — may be in sight to protect this global food source from accumulating harmful levels of one of the deadliest poisons on the planet. Rice currently is a staple in the diet of more than half the world’s population.

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Scientists at the University of Southampton have found a way to pry into the private lives of fish - by looking in their ears.

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A University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researcher warned that a disease that has decimated Cavendish bananas in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia could be headed for the Western Hemisphere.

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A six-year study indicates that crops grown in contaminated urban soils present little to no risk for people eating those crops when gardeners have followed best practices.

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RED ROCK — In an area of Texas known by locals as “East of Weird” because of its proximity to progressive Austin, a farm is yielding many bushels of fruit and vegetables on a space no larger than a parking space.

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UF/IFAS scientists find a light trap that captures more mosquitoes so mosquito control officials can save time and money in their spraying efforts.

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The handling of agricultural crop residues appears to have a large impact on soil's ability to retain carbon, making land management practices increasingly important, according to researchers at Argonne National Laboratory.

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A new Cornell study of New York state apple orchards finds that pesticides harm wild bees, and fungicides labeled “safe for bees” also indirectly may threaten native pollinators.

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A leap of faith in science is paying off at Cornell University's orchards in Ithaca, as researchers and managers celebrate a solid spring pollination season by native pollinators - not honeybees.

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Wichita State University microbiology professor Mark Schneegurt and ornithology professor Chris Rogers have discovered that one of North America's most common migratory birds – the Dark-eyed Junco – carries on its feathers a remarkable diversity of plant bacteria, the greatest ever found on wild birds. And while many of these bacteria may be harmful to plants, the bacteria could also be of great benefit.

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New research analyzes the economic tradeoffs associated with uncertain supply of a perishable product, reviewing how risk aversion and the source of uncertainty – demand and/or supply – affect supply chain decisions.

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A University of Wisconsin-Madison animal scientist has developed an antibiotic-free method to protect animals raised for food against common infections.

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In the United States, federal mandates to produce more renewable fuels, especially biofuels, have led to a growing debate: Should fuel or food grow on arable land? Recent research found encouraging, sustainable results when growing Camelina sativa with soybean in the Midwest.

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The laurel wilt pathogen can severely damage Florida's avocado crop, which provides a $100 million-a-year economic impact on Florida. But the new camera images from UF/IFAS scientists can give growers a jump-start on the disease.

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Johns Hopkins experts lead an international group that has issued an ambitious five-year agenda to tackle some of the most complex ethical issues involved in ensuring the global population has enough sustainably produced safe and nutritious food.

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The same spring rains that lessen producers’ concerns about drought can also lead to soil erosion and nutrient runoff. Keeping soil and fertilizers where they belong—in the field—benefits producers and the environment, according to South Dakota State University plant scientist Sandeep Kumar. He and graduate student Sagar Gautam used computer modeling to determine which farm management methods will produce the best reduction in surface runoff.

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The European Union is the world’s leading wheat producer, ahead of China, India and the USA, with 20% of the total world harvest (136 million tons in 2013) on 26 million ha cultivated.

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Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: nutrition, environment, children's health, education, cancer, Acoustical Society of America (ASA) annual meeting, and agriculture.

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Researchers at Kansas State University have looked into how vegetables take up different soil contaminants. They also considered how different gardening practices could reduce this uptake. They found that, in the majority of examples, eating vegetables grown in the contaminated soils studied was safe.

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What exactly are the differences between fish that is wild caught versus fish that is farm raised? A Q&A with Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) President Mary Ellen Camire, PhD, CFS sheds some light on this topic.

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The Rugose spiraling whitefly leaves a sticky white mess on everything from cars to homes and golf courses and trees. But a wasp the size of a pin head can control it, say UF/IFAS scientists.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved Southern Gardens Citrus’ application for an Experimental Use Permit under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.

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Wheat is the most widely grown cereal crop in the world, with more than 715 millions tons produced on 220 million hectares. Each year, nearly US $50 billion-worth of wheat is traded globally. The world’s top producers are the European Union, followed by China, India and the USA. Wheat is currently the staple food for more than 35% of the global human population. With the world’s population estimated to reach 9.6 billion by 2050, the World Bank has estimated that global wheat production would need to increase by 60 %.

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Expansion of cattle pastures has led to the destruction of huge swaths of rain forest in Brazil, home to the world’s largest herd of commercial beef cattle. But a new study led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Holly Gibbs shows that market-driven “zero deforestation agreements” have dramatically influenced the behavior of ranchers and the slaughterhouses to which they sell.

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A group of leading soil scientists points out the precarious state of the world’s soil resources and the possible ramifications for human security in a paper published Thursday, May 7, in the journal Science.

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Silver nanoparticles produced with an extract of wormwood can stop several strains of the fungus phytophthora dead in its tracks.

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Strength, stability, water drainage and other factors important.

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A new study led by the University of Iowa shows swine farmers are six times more likely to be carriers of staph bacteria, including the MRSA strain, than others. Results appear online in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

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The United Nations General Assembly declared 2015 the International Year of Soils. Soil is critical for food production and climate regulation. It’s a complex underground ecosystem of organisms that process decaying debris to enrich the land as well as store and release carbon into the atmosphere. However, human activity and changing climate are impacting this environmental system. Scientists working at EMSL are trying to understand the complexities of soil to develop better sustainable land management to protect it.

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Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: exercise and obesity, Focused Ultrasound to treat uterine fibroids, neurology, diet supplements and cancer (day 4 in top 10), genetics, geology, skin cancer, sleep and Alzheimer's, and water conservation.

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Gardeners know what not to do when pruning crape myrtles, but the frequent reminders against crape murder can leave some gardeners wondering if it's possible to prune these plants at all.

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This story introduces a program that applies the tried-and-true Extension Service method of teaching and learning to forestry. The goal is to encourage landowners to invest in higher-quality seedlings when replanting.

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Soil scientists have struggled with accurately measuring water flow through soil for years. Even the smallest soil details can sway water’s path from the straight, sequential line gravity alone might demand. These minute differences contribute to water’s “preferential flow.” For farmers’ crops dependent on moisture, or chemical spills needing containment, preferential flow can be a matter of life or death.